Kinesiology program moves Downtown

Students in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation kinesiology program were officially informed last week that the program will gradually move to the Downtown campus over the next three years.

Next fall, all freshman-level courses will be offered on the Downtown campus, while upper-division courses remain on the Tempe campus.

This structure of a gradual move means upper division students will not be impacted or required to move Downtown.

Over the course of three years, incoming students will continue to attend the Downtown campus as higher-level courses shift over from Tempe.

“Eventually we all are moving Downtown, but it’s a gradual move,” interim co-director of kinesiology Jennifer Fay said. “[For professors], when all of their courses are offered Downtown, that’s when they will move, but everybody will be fully Downtown after three more academic years. In the meantime, some of us will straddle the two campuses.”

As tenured and research faculty move Downtown for teaching purposes, their research labs will be permanently moved as well.

Although the exact locations for all classes, labs and offices are yet to be determined, Fay said program administration has been working with University space planners and architects to ensure adequate space for the full program and its needs.

Administrative associate for the program of kinesiology Penny Pandelisev said the transition will be very similar to the move made by the Health and Wellness program from the Polytechnic Campus over the last few years.

Both programs were moved from other colleges into the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, which is on the Downtown campus.

The kinesiology program moved into the College of Nursing and Health Innovation following the disestablishment of the Department of Kinesiology within the College of Liberal Arts in Sciences last year.

“Sometimes a department will be disestablished because it’s no longer associated with a certain college,” Pandelisev said. “In this case, the College of Nursing doesn’t have departments, it only has programs, so the department was disestablished, but the program still exists.”

In many ways, the move will benefit students, Fay said.

“We feel all around it’s a positive improvement for several reasons,” she said. “Primarily, [the college of] nursing is a great fit for kinesiology, because most of our students are going into the health care field. I would say the majority of our students want to go into physical therapy, and a lot want to go on to medical school.”

Kinesiology junior Stephanie Chayrez said although the move won’t affect her personally, she agrees with Fay’s statement.

“It’s nice being at the main campus and everything, but if you’re going to be around the other nursing majors, I think it will help them out,” Chayrez said.

Program administration has already arranged for a floor of the main housing complex on the Downtown campus, Taylor Place, to be exclusively for incoming kinesiology students.

The Residential Community for Kinesiology, referred to as RCKIN and pronounced “rockin’,” will serve as a learning community for incoming students.

“Downtown is a very happening place and we want our students to want to live there,” Fay said. “I think our students are excited, and we’re excited.”